Donder
by moonswirl
Summary: Gleekathon, day four hundred and twenty-seven:  reindeer 7/8  Right out of nowhere, McKInley High went and seduced Coach Shannon Beiste.


_Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 20th cycle. Now cycle 21! (I realized I didn't fix this line throughout the whole of cycle 20! *smacks forehead*)_

_So as I did it **last year (days 52 through 63)**, I wanted to do something Christmas-y, but not overly so. Last year I used the song of "**The Twelve Days of Christmas**", and this year I used... **Santa's Reindeers**! So the stories in and of themselves aren't Christmas-themed, just the title that inspired them is ;) You'll see :)_

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**"Donder"  
Beiste **

She took pride in what she did, always. She believed things had to be done a certain way, and that was how she did them. If anyone had a problem with that, well she had the results to back it up. She loved her job and she was good at it, and more than that it brought satisfaction to her life, and knowledge that she had a place in that world.

It had not been immediate, that she got to understand the people at McKinley High. The first little while, she felt like she'd stepped into some crazy town. And when they weren't acting like crazies, they were displaying a cunning talent for… regression… There she was, a grown woman, and they reduced her to no more than a fifteen-year-old…

She had come very close to leaving. As determined as she was… She'd come to that school, seeing a team in serious need of someone who would whip them into shape, to grant them the right to actually be called a football team instead of 'cheer enablers'… That had motivated her so much, given her that drive, that… She couldn't explain it, but anyone who'd felt it would understand.

As determined as she was, the way things had ended up had only made her disappointment that much more painful. Coupled with the personal hurt, it was enough to send her packing… Thank goodness she hadn't, that they'd pulled her back, because that was when she'd started to see the other half… who they could be, beyond all the insanity.

They had started seducing her, pure and simple. Not in the way of romance, of course, but just… They grew in her heart; and that was not a habit of hers, never before, at previous postings. 'The Panther' had always been there to do one thing alone, and that was to do her job, to the very best of her abilities, which was saying a lot. She didn't let herself get distracted by the affairs of others, didn't go around coddling or giving special treatment… she wanted her team to grow strong, build character…

Thinking that way had saved her; she believed it. She could have disappeared in her misery, with the way she'd been treated. But she had gone and found something… something she was really good at… something they could never take away from her. It gave her joy.

She felt joy, she felt pride, she felt; there were plenty of people out there who didn't seem to understand this. And no matter how much she wanted to put between herself and those old days, no matter how many years got piled there in the gap, it was baggage. It was like some creature out of some slasher film… Right when the poor unsuspecting one would stop, out of breath, having closed him or herself off from the killer, they'd turn around and bam! There it was.

McKinley High started out like that at-long-last refuge, and she was fine until… She turned around. There it all was: The nightmare… Teachers who acted like kids, and kids who acted like… like the ones she went to school with, but almost worse. Could she really be blamed for wanting to get away from that? Even as their behavior had started to change, it took her a while to let herself trust them.

Will Schuester for one… She had gone in there believing he would be an ally, someone who'd understand her, but that wasn't the guy she first met. No, instead she met him as Sue Sylvester's little disciple, playing table games, pranks, and crying foul over budget for something like 'Glee Club.' She responded as she did, not because of some 'past trauma done to her by Glee Club,' but simply because, for all she knew of it, she didn't get why it should all be such a big deal… especially this one, if they couldn't even win.

But then things started to turn, started to change, and she finally began to see what all the fuss was about. It wasn't just the parts about the singing and the dancing, though she had to say those kids really were talented. It was more, and being who she was, having had the life she had, she could truly appreciate it. She always supported team spirit with her players, but this was so much more, it was… a family… a unit. They looked out for one another, which was good of any group, but there was more. They extended to more than what people expected of them, defending them… They all had these things stacked up against them, but they weren't alone; so their horror creature had better brace itself, because there was no way it would get at them undefended.

Now she knew what she had, being there, and it was so much more than she could have expected or hoped for. Her team was slowly but surely starting to build itself up, she had people to stand by her, and she knew there was this part of it which made a difference. She knew she still had to deal with the likes of Sue Sylvester, but she hadn't gotten to where she was by letting those people get in her way. She was so happy now, pleased to be there. And if ever the moment needed it, she'd be right there, part of that wall separating them from whatever tried to bring them down, the way they'd done to her, too.

THE END

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**A/N: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.  
****In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are  
****always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!**


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